The Summoner comes four years after the last Kreng album Grimoire (MIA 016CD/LP) and three years after the massive retrospective box set Works for Abattoir Fermé 2007-2011. A lot has happened in the interim, and The Summoner can be seen as quite the departure from the aforementioned works. Pepijn Caudron's most personal album to date, The Summoner was created after a year in which Caudron lost several close friends, and takes its structure from the five stages of grief. A sixth stage, "The Summoning," helps bridge the gap to the finale, "Acceptance." Conjuring up the spirit of György Ligeti, the first half of the album is made entirely of Caudron's direction of a dozen string players, whose noisy clusters and crescendos move the listener from denial through anger, bargaining, and depression. In fact, The Summoner is the first Kreng album not constructed from hordes of samples. Music to really dig deep into. The disorienting twists and turns lead into the second half of the album, with haunting organs and smoke-filled chambers of "The Summoning" preceding an earth-shaking wall of guitars, drums, and bass courtesy of Belgian doom band Amenra. Leaving the listener in a state of shock, the album closes with the incredible and quietly heartfelt "Acceptance."